Israel’s cost of living rose by 1.2 percent during February, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced Monday.
The rise nearly duplicated January’s 1.3 increase and prompted grim auguries for the future.
Economists predicted that if the monthly index continues to increase by similar amounts throughout the year and the current decline in the shekel-dollar exchange rate is not reversed, inflation in 1993 will return to a two-digit rate, possibly as high as 15 percent.
Nearly all of January’s increase was related to the devaluation of the shekel compared to the dollar.
In 1992, the inflation rate was just over 9 percent. It was the first year in many that Israel experienced only single-digit inflation.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
